1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for packaging food articles. More particularly, the invention concerns a novel method and apparatus for packaging an uncooked food product such as cookie dough in a ready-to-use form for later baking.
2. Discussion of the Invention
A myriad of food products are now packaged in a ready-to-use state. For example, many types of uncooked or partially cooked food articles such as meats, vegetables, breads and pastries are formed into individual servings and are delivered to restaurants, schools and like institutions in a ready-to-use form.
Uncooked food articles such as ready-to-bake biscuits, rolls and cookies are particularly popular and are readily available in most grocery stores and also from many wholesale grocery outlets and institutional suppliers. Typically, these articles are packaged in generally cylindrically shaped rolls or containers from which the uncooked dough can be removed, formed into individual servings and then placed on baking sheets or the like for cooking. Such products are popular because the ingredients which make up the products are already mixed and are packaged in a ready-to-cook state. However, even with these premixed food products, considerable effort is required to produce the finished food product. For example, the user must typically open the package, remove the dough from the container, form it into the desired shape and serving portion, and then place the uncooked serving portion on an appropriate cooking surface, such as a baking sheet, for cooking. While the effort required is minimal in the case of small volume users, such as homemakers, considerable time and effort is required to produce the final product when these prior art, pre-packaged food products are used by large institutional users such as schools, commissaries, major restaurants and the like.
The thrust of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus that can supply large volume users with ready-to-use, uncooked food articles which can be removed directly from the package and then cooked without a requirement for any pre-cooking preparation. In one form of the invention, cookie dough is formed into a multiplicity of cookie shaped segments which are placed in spaced-apart rows between sheets of sterile baking parchment to form a laminate which is compactly rolled and then placed into an appropriate container for shipment and storage. To prepare the finished cookies, all the user need do is remove the rolled laminate from the container, unroll it, remove the top sheet of parchment, place the bottom sheet, which carries the cookie segments, into the oven and cook the dough. At no time need the end user handle the cookie dough to form it into appropriately shaped segments and then to transfer the uncooked segments to a cooking surface for baking. In this way a large number of premixed, preshaped and precisely sized cookie dough segments can be baked directly on the packaging medium with which they are delivered to rapidly and efficiently produce high quality cookies in substantial quantities.
In one form of the invention, the method is highly automated so that the food articles are untouched by human hands during the entire forming and packaging process. More particularly, after the ingredients which make up the product are precisely mixed, the apparatus of the invention functions to form the dough into portions of a precise weight, shape and volume. The individual portions are then automatically placed in spaced-apart rows on a length of temperature resistant baking parchment and then covered with a sterile covering, such as a second sheet of parchment, to form a laminate. After the laminate is cut at predetermined locations intermediate selected rows of segments, it is rolled into unrollable rolls and placed into a compact transport and storage container. Throughout the novel packaging process, the dough need not be handled by the operators of the automated apparatus. The process is, therefore, sanitary, labor saving, and highly efficient.